NeverSea: Review

NeverSea
by Jenetta Penner , David R. Bernstein
Published November 29th 2017
304 pages
Genres: Fantasy, Fairytale Retelling

Synopsis:

Content Rating: PG Light violence and romantic suggestion, but there are some scene depicting abuse.

“The Little Mermaid & Peter Pan together in a sci-fi retelling.”

Forced under the sea, seventeen-year-old Arya fights, alongside her sisters, to take down the Syndicate—a group looking to genetically redesign humanity against their will. When a routine patrol goes horribly wrong, she reunites with Peter, the ousted former leader of the Lost Boys. Arya and Peter’s tortured past, filled with genetic experimentation, fuel their need for justice.

Years earlier, Peter left young Arya when she needed him the most, leaving her torn from James, the love of her life.

Now, Arya has no choice, but to trust Peter or risk losing everything.

In a future where a constantly rising sea has swallowed nearly all the land on Earth, Arya and Peter fight to regain control of Neverland, a massive floating settlement, now controlled by the Syndicate.

The abilities forced on them years ago, are now the weapons they need to fight back.

Review:

I love retellings, and what could be better than The Little Mermaid mixed with Peter Pan set in a dystopian future? Who wouldn’t love that? Well apparently the authors, as they have rewritten and rebranded the book as Reckless. They removed all the fairy tale references, and changed the names of the characters. They’ve also said it has “improved editing.”

Knowing this really took all the fun out of reading NeverSea.

The whole REASON I wanted to read it was because it was a retelling of two of my favorite stories. I loved looking for all the connections between the beloved fairy tales and the characters, places and events in NeverSea. Arya and Peter were great scifi versions of themselves. The Lost Boys and Wendy were pretty good too, as were Arya’s “sisters”. Without spoiling anything, I thought Tink was PERFECT!

The story itself was pretty typical YA scifi adventure. Fast paced and exciting, with romance, betrayals, and exciting action scenes the book delivers on it’s YA scifi premise.

Bottom Line:

Even with all the good stuff the disappointment of knowing this book was rebranded and the fairytale references removed keeps it from getting a Love It rating.